Wednesday, 29 December 2010

On holiday in St Barths I came across the stunning hotel La Banane. I am particularly in love with the tiled floor, although I'd probably only consider this if I was living in a hot country. Also really like the modern take on the 4 poster bed...

Tuesday, 28 December 2010

My mum has just received the armchair back from the upholsterers, and it looks absolutely amazing! So pleased with it - it will take pride of place in our new living room. Can't wait to get it home. At the moment I've only seen this picture of it and not the real thing, but I am really pleased with it.

As previously mentioned, the fabric is Dandelion Clocks by Sanderson and is everywhere at the moment (including the wallpaper in Hollyoaks...not very happy about that!)

Friday, 24 December 2010

I came across this paint-by-numbers wallpaper today. The perfect way to get your decor to perfectly match your furniture! It's £40 a roll which is much cheaper than I would have guessed. I love the top one - might buy a roll to use for covering furniture. There's a brilliant Sunday Times article on how to wallpaper a chest of drawers here. And below are some inspiring pictures of a small Ikea set of drawers which have been decorated with patterned paper.

And below are some inspiring pictures of a small Ikea set of drawers from Shine Design which have been decorated with patterned paper. I have some of these drawers myself which are plain wood at the moment and it would be nice to do something creative with them. Stay tuned!

Anyway today is Christmas Eve so I will be signing off for a couple of days to enjoy Christmas - hope you all have a lovely break and come back soon!

Thursday, 23 December 2010

As I mentioned, we've got lots of books that will need to be stored. We've got a couple of big Ikea Expedit bookshelves which I really love, but I'm not sure they will fit into the new living room configuration. I may have to have a look at Ikea Hacker for some ideas, but Theo may well be getting out his tool kit to create something custom that will fit the space.

Wednesday, 22 December 2010

Again, not totally house-related, but I wanted to share with you this little project I did for my cousin who has just had a baby boy. They're moving up to Scotland too, so he will be cold and will require little knitted things to keep him cosy!

The socks at the top are available as a free pattern here. And the shoe pattern is also free, here.

I packed both gifts in a box from Paperchase, and cut away a section on the top to stamp the baby's name. I used my lovely little red typewriter to type a label for the box. Hope they liked it!

Monday, 20 December 2010

Today I came across Great Things & Chocolate, a really lovely blog full of inspiring ideas. Definitely not possible to incorporate all these ideas into our modest new space, but it's really nice to look at the pictures.

Love the black and white checked floor in the kitchen - considering doing this in our own kitchen.

Sunday, 19 December 2010

I really love the idea of white floors, walls etc but with vibrant pops of colour here and there. Definitely planning to salvage a few pieces of furniture and bring them back to life with a fresh coat of brightly coloured paint.

The top 2 images are from Sunny's blog, which I have recently discovered and will definitely be returning to, and the rest are from Shine Design. Love the tin makeover. Then again I love all boxes, tins, cartons, crates....sigh.

And the below, I believe, comes from House Doctor, an amazing Danish shop which is sadly unavailable in the UK.

Thursday, 16 December 2010

We have a little office 'nook' in the new flat, which is crying out for some quirky decoration. I received the Orla Kiely pattern book for my birthday and was inspired to decide on her stem print wallpaper for the nook. The top picture is the design that I think I'm going to go for:

Fortunately for me, my lovely brother said he would buy me any wallpaper of my choice when we moved in as a belated birthday present. So far, the Orla Kiely is winning!